Our Tune of the Day comes from Fabian Holland. It’s fair to say that since he last appeared on these pages, Fabian’s life has been through a number of significant changes. When we last spoke to him in 2015, he was living on a narrow boat in London, faced with a very different set of challenges common to those who have chosen to live upon the water in an urban environment.
One month after his first child was born, Fabian and his new family moved from London to Berlin. It was in this new city that they found themselves living in what used to be a bakery in a small area of Berlin called ‘Rote Insel‘ (Red Island). “Berlin is a fascinating city, the way the architecture is built you can find these quiet little pockets. We’re living in the middle of a major city and it’s completely silent.”
It’s from this area of Berlin that his new album, Under The Red Island Bakery, not only takes its title but is also where it was made. It was recorded from start to finish in a day in the basement of Fabian’s apartment. All tracks are single takes, no loops or re-recordings were used anywhere in the process and all instruments were played live in the room by Fabian except for the trumpet which was played by Jake Painter from Captain SKA.
The music here is also very different, something which is beautifully conveyed in the video for Two Thousand Miles below which has an almost meditative quality to it, that moment where you are caught between deep contemplation and inner stillness as he maybe was when this piece of music came to him…mirroring a train journey and the changing scenery.
Fabian on Two Thousand Miles:
“I wrote this song when I was traveling through Europe by train with my partner and our 2 year old son. I do most of my traveling by train these days, I think it‘s such a wonderful way to travel. It takes a lot longer than flying but you have much more of a sense of traveling somewhere when you’re able to see the landscape. I’m playing 3 different instruments in this song. I start with a Charango, a small 10 stringed lute-like instrument from South America, a Lapsteel guitar which I hand-built myself specifically for this album and then my acoustic guitar to end with. As I was writing this I was trying to imitate the different landscapes I was seeing from the trains.”
We will be bringing you more soon on Under The Red Island Bakery which is set for release on 29th May 2020 via StringBox Records (SBCD001).
https://www.fabianholland.com/
Pre-Order it here https://www.fabianholland.com/shop/
Photo Credit: Louise O’Gorman